


The Lost Elf

by FreckledSkittles



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Elf, Christmas, Crack Treated Seriously, Family Reunions, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, i mean come on sonny is buddy the elf, sorta idk man, wait its really a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27979035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreckledSkittles/pseuds/FreckledSkittles
Summary: “Wanna guess where he says he’s from?” Fin asks. Something about his tone tells Rafael that even his best guess won’t be close.Rafael smirks. “Judging by the amount of attention this one schmuck is getting, I think you two would rather tell me.”“North Pole.”Rafael gives an abrupt laugh that falters when the two detectives stare at him, unchanging in their expressions. Rafael lets out a long sigh. “He’s serious?”“Trust me, we did the same thing,” Rollins chuckles dryly. “Wanna find out who he worked for?”
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35





	The Lost Elf

**Author's Note:**

> What's this? FreckledSkittles is actually posting something seasonal on TIME???? I can't even believe this  
> Don't worry, I thought this was ~3k until I got to the last two sections and that word count said NOPE lmaoooo
> 
> Yeah this is the only winter/Christmas/holiday-themed fic I had inspiration for (not counting the winter exchange fic bc oof lemme tell you it's gonna be G R A N D). Last year, I did an advent calendar and (surprising no one) it ran past the date I wanted it to, but this year I'm so close to 100 fics on here and I want it to be a special one, specifically my greek myth/pantheon au but you didn't hear it from me 
> 
> Anywayyyy I got this idea of Sonny Carisi being Buddy the Elf (yes, THE Buddy the Elf from the hit 2003 Jon Favreau movie "Elf" starring Will Ferrell and James Caan) about a month ago and I don't really write get together fics so this was a fun challenge! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it

Rafael steps into the shower when the water reaches the right temperature, sighing at the tension that melts down the drain with the water. A hot shower was always a good resolution to the tension of a busy day. There wasn’t much of a difference between a regular day of work and today except for the minor influx of paperwork that was demanded of him in December. The more that got done, allegedly, the sooner and quicker they could get to some type of winter break. Rafael was someone who believed that his work never truly ended, but if it pleased the Bureau Chief and the DA to believe such a farce, he would play along with them.

Rafael takes a deep breath and dabs a bit of shampoo into his hand. He lets himself get distracted by the fall of the water against the tiles, across his shoulders, and down his back. The steam from the heat coils above him, and he lets his voice carry out after it.

> _ Oh the weather outside is frightful  
>  _ _ But the fire is so delightful  
>  _ _ And since we’ve no place to go  
>  _ _ Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow _

He wouldn’t call himself a singer, by any means, but he was considered good enough as a kid to be given solos in the Christmas pageant their church put on. His ability to carry a tune well followed him to college for the theater activities he participated in to ease the stress of Ivy League classes. But even starring as Bobby in Sondheim’s  _ Company _ wasn’t enough to convince him.

So Rafael saves his singing for the shower. Sometimes, when he finds the chance to cook, he’ll hum a tune caught in his head. It’s customary to sing to Abuelita’s records for family gatherings, especially when she takes his hands at every other song and claims every other one as her favorite. And as much as he would do anything for Abuelita, a kitchen surrounded by a family willing and able to berate him for the smallest crease in his shirt is not the same as the company of several dozen water droplets and the soap lathered in his hair.

> _ It doesn’t show signs of stopping  
>  _ _ But I’ve brought some corn for popping  
>  _ _ The lights are turned way down low  
>  _ _ Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow _

Christmas is a strange time for Rafael. He still makes it to dinner with Abuelita and his mother, and her sisters and their families, and he still finds a way to enjoy himself. He gives gifts to the people he deems worthy of his affection and time, even when they add to the headaches he earns at work. But for the fourth year in a row without a companion to share the moments with, going home to an empty apartment feels odd after spending time with so many people for two days. It feels wrong, in all honesty, and Rafael hasn’t been able to find out why.

He rinses out the shampoo and is dabbing some conditioner on his fingers when the third verse is interrupted. “ _ When we finally kiss goodnight, how I’ll hate going out in the storm. But if you really— _ ”

A new voice, this one loud and brash but cheerful all the same, suddenly becomes louder. As if it had been listening the entire time and had been hoping for an in. “ _ —hold me tight, all the way home I’ll be warm! _ ”

Rafael freezes. There should only be one person in his apartment. There should only be one person in his bathroom. He slowly reaches for the shower curtain and pulls it back just enough for him to peek over. He should have checked his apartment to locate his guest before hopping into the shower.

Rafael tugs the curtain back when his guest—the lanky, blond elf who supposedly was on a journey from the North Pole to find the family he had allegedly run away from—looks over his shoulder. “SONNY!” Rafael snaps, and a soft  _ thump _ echoes around the bathroom. “Get out!”

The door shuts with a bang and muffles the “I’m sorry!” the elf yells out behind him. Rafael sags against the tile and takes a deep breath, waiting for the moment he can wake up from this headache and return to reality.

* * *

Taking in an “elf” had not been his idea. Rafael had walked into SVU on a day where their uptick of bringing in a plethora of costumed Santas and elves was at a high, but only one of them had been worth taking the time to talk to. The elf in question—although he didn’t look like the rest of the elves in costume, judging by the quality of the clothes he was dressed in—called himself Sonny and claimed to be searching for the family he had left years ago.

Rafael had been called in and arrived at the precinct in the middle of the elf’s interrogation with Detective Amaro and Lieutenant Benson. Rollins and Fin were watching from the outside; Sergeant Dodds was handling the rest of the bookings they had done and directed Rafael to interrogation two.

“What do we know about him?” Rafael asks, stepping in the space between Fin and Rollins.

“We’re waiting on a hit from the prints,” Rollins sighs, turning the dial on the intercom to mute the interrogation. She presses her forehead against the glass of the one-way mirror. “He says his name is Sonny, no last name. We picked him up in a brawl at a Macy’s.”

“Classy.”

“Wanna guess where he says he’s from?” Fin asks. Something about his tone tells Rafael that even his best guess won’t be close.

Rafael smirks. “Judging by the amount of attention this one schmuck is getting, I think you two would rather tell me.”

Rollins and Fin share a knowing look before Fin speaks again. “North Pole.”

Rafael gives an abrupt laugh that falters when the two detectives stare at him, unchanging in their expressions. Rafael lets out a long sigh. “He’s serious?”

“Trust me, we did the same thing,” Rollins chuckles dryly. “Wanna find out who he worked for?”

Rafael nearly breaks his briefcase’s handle with how hard he grasps it. With his getup and his claimed home, there’s only one place he could have come from at the North Pole. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Rollins turns up the dial again, and the three listen in.

“ _ Look, I get it, _ ” Amaro says, his hands folded on top of the table as he leans forward. Olivia paces behind him and shoots an unimpressed look at the mirror. “ _ This city’s big—my daughter, Zara almost got lost on a school trip to Central Park. Before I made detective, during my patrol days, I used to give directions to tourists. There’s nothing wrong with that. _ ”

The elf nods, his eyes earnest and intense. Amaro always had a talent for getting someone to relate to him.

He continues, almost like a parent chiding his child and trying to get him to understand what he did was wrong. “ _ But if you want us to help you, you’re gonna have to give us more. _ ”

“ _ What else do you wanna know? _ ” The elf asks.

“ _ Let’s start with why you were at a Macy’s in the first place _ ,” Olivia states. “ _ We picked you up in the middle of a fistfight, and two of the elves and the Santa we picked up with you claim that you started it. _ ”

The elf shakes his head, his hands rising in front of him. “ _ No, I had nothing to do with that. Papa always said that fighting someone with your hands, no matter what, would earn you a spot on the naughty list. _ ”

“ _ I thought you said you didn’t know who your family was _ ,” Nick says.

“ _ No, my elf papa said that. I was raised by elves, but I’m actually human. _ ”

“How is this special victims?” Rafael groans.

“Based on how he talks, he might not have the mental capacity to know where or who he is,” Fin says. “Dodds is contacting psych hospitals in New York and Jersey to see if anyone’s had any escapees.”

Rafael just rolls his eyes and turns back to interrogation. Nick’s irritation is clear in the clench of his right hand across the knuckles on his left when the elf asks when he could get something to eat. He’s surprised that both of the detectives have restrained themselves from lashing out.

“ _ We can get you something to eat once you answer our questions _ ,” Nick promises. “ _ Now, what happened at the store? _ ”

The elf blinks a few times, running a finger along a dent in the table. “ _ I saw someone who was impersonating Santa, and I told him he was lying to kids and that was wrong, and he pushed me into two elves who were helping him spread his lies, and they started fighting. _ ”

“ _ Just like that? _ ” Olivia asks in a deadpan; the elf nods. “ _ You didn’t have anything to do with it beyond that? _ ”

Sergeant Dodds comes up to them with a folder in hand. There’s a deep concern in his eyes that says the information in his hands is going to change the case. “Results came back,” he says in a low voice. He raps his fist on the glass to get Olivia and Amaro’s attention; the haste they take to exit the room is not lost on Rafael. “We got a hit.”

“Is he lying?” Rollins asks.

Dodds waits until Amaro and Olivia walk out, shutting the door behind them, to speak again. “I didn’t get anything from his fingerprints, but his name picked something up. We had to broaden the search to include all boroughs, and we got this.” He hands over the file to Olivia. “About thirty years ago on Staten Island, a six-year-old boy got in a fight with his sisters at a family-owned bakery and ran out on them. He was never found and there was no trace of him. Dominick Carisi, Jr., but he went by—”

“Sonny,” Olivia breathes out. The squad turns to look at him, but Rafael takes the file to get another look at it. That last name sounded familiar. “Thirty years later.”

“His name is Carisi,” Rafael muses. “That’s not common.”

“Two years ago, in the trial against the POs,” Rollins says, glancing at him, “wasn’t one of them dating a Carisi?”

“Bella and Tommy. They sent wedding invites a year after that to thank the DA’s office for helping them.” Rafael pulls out his phone and texts Carmen to see if she can get into contact with them again. He wouldn’t be so sure of the relation if the case file Mike has presented to them didn’t list one of the sisters as a girl named Bella.

“So, what,” Amaro says, “this guy runs away from home, and thirty years later, he shows up out of nowhere claiming to be one of Santa’s elves?”

“Apparently,” Dodds sighs. “From what I can gather from the reports at the time, it was a sibling fight gone wrong.”

“There’s not much we can do for him,” Olivia says. She watches the elf bend over to look under the table. “Huang might be able to help us out, but it’s too late to do anything about it now.”

“What do we do with him?” Rollins asks. “Just process him with the rest of the scum we picked up?”

“I don’t think he could last a night in the tombs,” Fin points out. “The first time he opens his mouth, he’s gonna get his ass kicked.”

Rollins growls out, “Well, I’m not letting him anywhere near my kid.” Olivia agrees with a soft, if distracted, hum.

“He could stay here,” she mumbles, “but he needs to be supervised.”

“Just throw him in a hotel,” Amaro says. “He’ll be fine until the morning.”

“And bring more attention to him?” Rollins scoffs. “He’d be better off with one of us. And I’m not volunteering,” she adds when Amaro opens his mouth. “You and Mike have room in your new apartment. You guys do it.”

“We just finished unpacking,” Dodds states, his voice already weary from the argument between the two detectives. “We want to finish packing before we have anyone over.”

Rafael glances up to watch the squad’s gazes all fall on Fin, the last to give a response, who scoffs and shakes his head. “Nope. He’s as impressionable as a newborn. I love John, but he doesn’t need to be anywhere near this guy.”

He should have paid more attention to the conversation. With no one able or willing to bring the strange elf into his home, and without offering an excuse or reason to not open his home, Rafael is the only one of the squad who can house the elf while they investigate further. He doesn’t get the chance to defend himself or protect his home before it’s decided.

The elf—Sonny—will stay with Rafael until DNA confirms a blood relation to the Carisi’s and a reunion can be arranged.

* * *

When Rafael walks out of the bathroom, wrapped in a bathrobe that’s tied a bit tighter than normal, he finds Sonny in the kitchen, mixing a bowl of something brown that keeps on sticking to the spatula. He steals a glance at Rafael and looks away just as quickly, a blush creeping over his cheeks. Rafael watches him slap pieces of batter onto a baking sheet for a moment, but the elf is talking before he can say anything.

“You had some dirty clothes, so I decided to wash them,” Sonny explains. “I didn’t know you were, uh, washing.”

“You didn’t hear the water running?” Rafael asks.

“I heard you singing.” He gives Rafael a look mixed with mild admiration and wonder. Rafael nearly falls over from how honest and genuine it is. It’s the third day of Sonny being here, and he’s still managed to surprise Rafael more times than any other person he’s had to share a living space with. “Your voice is very nice.”

Rafael looks away and falls against the doorway. “Thank you. Just…” He clears his throat to try and scatter the blush off of his cheeks. “If you’re going to walk in on me in the shower, at least have the decency of knocking.”

Sonny nods and puts the full baking tray into the kitchen. “Would you like some cookies?”

“Maybe later. I should eat dinner first.” He picks out a menu from a Chinese restaurant not too far from his place. One call there and his regular order should be put in. “I need to break my bad habits somehow. Do you want anything? I’m getting Chinese.” When he doesn’t respond, Rafael glances over at him to find the elf staring quizzically at him. “What, have you never had Chinese?”

“I’ve heard of a place called China, but I didn’t know they had a special cuisine.”

Rafael scoffs and presents him with the menu to look for something to eat. If he has to explain what certain dishes are, or what each one will taste like, he doesn’t mind if it means he gets to watch the elf fumble with chopsticks and spill grains of fried rice all over himself.

* * *

Bella offers—with extreme enthusiasm—a DNA sample for them to check with Sonny’s. The result is a perfect match: they share the same father and mother. Sonny the elf is Sonny Carisi.

SVU makes the decision not to tell him. Rafael wishes he had been there so he could protest what a bad idea that was. Sonny was doing well in the few days he’s spent at Rafael’s apartment. He still had the curiosity of a newborn but had learned to manage it in a way that wasn’t so disruptive. When Rafael was asked to describe him, he always used the analogy of a golden retriever puppy coming home for the first time—excited about everything with no boundaries but not in a malicious sort of way. Maybe that’s why the squad hides the DNA results.

“Why aren’t you going to tell Sonny?” Rafael asks the evening he read the DNA results. He and Sonny were brought in on the premise that there was a break in the case on where his family was, but they weren’t telling Sonny anything else beyond that. Olivia and Rafael sit in her office while Sonny entertains the squad with stories from the North Pole. Rafael had accepted after their night of Chinese takeaway that whatever Sonny’s experiences were, they were real to him.

“We don’t want to disrupt him,” Olivia answers. She offers a bowl of pretzels just for him; Rafael stuffs a few in his mouth almost immediately. “Family is more than genetic connections. His idea of a family is not the five Carisi’s who miss a brother and a son.”

“But why should that stop him from knowing the truth?”

“Because everything he knows is outside of New York. He didn’t even know what borough he was in. And don’t say it’s his memory,” she adds when he opens his mouth. “How much do you remember when you were six?”

Rafael rolls his eyes but he’s outnumbered. The rest of the squad agrees with Olivia—because of course they would, although he does suspect there’s some bias among them—and at the end of the day, he can’t prove that Sonny knowing who his family is would be beneficial. To them, all he needs to know is that there are people who may have known him before he ended up becoming an elf. The fact that those people are also the ones who are biologically related to him remains silent.

So when Rafael accompanies Olivia and Sonny to meet his family—at Sonny’s request and Rafael’s insistence, as the person with the most familiarity to him—he has no idea what to expect. Sonny is skeptical of the subway, so Olivia drives them to Staten Island. Rafael watches Sonny gaze out the window in wonder as they cross over the Verrazzano Bridge. He’s no longer dressed in the outfit he had come in—Rafael refused to let him stay dressed like that for another day, and it wasn’t because he was eager to show off his eye for colors and his taste in fashion. But Sonny insisted on keeping his hat on. According to him, with little to back it up, it provided more warmth than the other hats Rafael goaded him into trying.

“What’s this island called again?” Sonny asks once they pull up to the road Bella had provided.

“Staten Island,” Rafael responds. He watches a tiny flicker of recognition flash in Sonny’s eyes when they stop in front of the house, but he doesn’t say anything else.

Olivia leads them up the walkway as the front door opens. Bella Carisi steps out, her smile bright and already wavering with the tears that fill her eyes. Sonny pauses when their eyes meet; Rafael stops beside him. They should have warned him. There’s no telling how he’s going to respond to this news.

“Sonny,” Bella says. Sonny blinks as she walks down the steps. The door closes behind her, but Rafael catches a quiet clamor behind it. From his experience with Bella, and what he remembers hearing from Tommy, the family can be quite loud and overwhelming when they want to be. Bella, tucking a strand of blonde behind her ear, offers a small wave. “Hi. Do you know who I am?”

“I…” Sonny shakes his head, and the confusion vanishes from his features. “I don’t.” He sounds unsure as if he’s fighting within himself to try and figure out where he knows her from. Rafael wouldn’t be shocked if he experienced

“Do you remember when we took your fingerprints with ink?” Olivia says softly, in the same voice she uses for victims. Sonny nods. “When we were looking for missing people in the city, we found a family who had been missing a brother for thirty years. We worked a case with them last year, so we were able to get in contact with them and find out more to test DNA. The spit we took?”

“Yeah, I,” Sonny clears his throat, “I remember.”

Bella holds out a hand; her fingers, uncovered in the chilly winter air, tremble in front of her. “I’m Bella Carisi. We used to hang out when we were younger.” Her voice breaks at the end. “We shared a room and we had bunk beds. I got the bottom bunk because I wanted to fight any monsters that were hiding underneath us.”

Sonny steps forward to shake her hand, but it doesn’t last before the two of them are embracing. Bella holds him close as he collapses into her, his shoulders quivering and his arms curled around her. She buries her face into his shoulder and fists the back of his coat. The front door opens, and two other women rush out, both blonde and older lookalikes to Bella. They must be Teresa and Gina, the older Carisi sisters, who hug the two. Sonny’s knees buckle when they arrive, and whatever words they share are muffled between them as they help support their brother and escort him into the house.

* * *

“So what are you?”

Rafael looks up from his sofa at the photo frame Sonny is holding. It had been a risk to bring Sonny with him to work but it was considerably safer than leaving him home and risking any of the many scenarios Rafael had run through. If anyone asked, he simply said that Sonny was an intern on loan from Brooklyn, since he still had contacts there and no one would think twice of a Brooklyn ADA sending over an intern to help him with a case or to ease some work off his shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re asking,” he states. The picture, he realizes, is from his graduation from law school, sandwiched between his mother and Abuelita.

Sonny points to the stole around his shoulders. “This sash. What’s it mean?”

“It represents the university degree I earned. I have a law degree, so I earned that stole.”

“Stole.” Sonny looks at the photo again, one finger running over the edge. “Who are the women with you?”

“My mother and my abuelita.”

“Abuelita?”

“It’s Spanish for grandmother.”

“Spanish. Abuelita.” Sonny trudges back to the hallway, musing under his breath as he hangs it back on the wall. “Ah-buay-lee-tah.”

Rafael drops the case file he had been reviewing on the coffee table, knowing he wasn’t going to be continuing it with the wave of questions and the conversation he’s about to delve into with Sonny. If it wasn’t so charming, the way that Sonny’s eyes lit up every time he learned something new, he would have pulled his hair out within thirty minutes of talking to him. “Do you know any Spanish?”

“A little. Papa didn’t know it as well as some other languages, so he took a while teaching it to me.” Sonny walks back in, this time with a different photo of Rafael and Rita. “Is this a lady friend of yours?”

Rafael chuckles. “In the way that she’s a lady and my friend.” He stands and holds a hand out to take the photo. “Rita and I went to university together. We used to work together.”

“She’s very pretty.” He admires the photo again. His fingers float over the image, perfectly caught in the space between the Harvard graduates. “You’re very pretty.”

Rafael makes his hurry to hang the photo up look like a rush to see what time it is and not related to the flattered flush splattered over his cheeks.

* * *

The Carisi family has two photo albums. The first is a collection of baby photos and first days of elementary school, cut between family gatherings and height checks. The most consistent ones are of the four Carisi children, standing side by side with each year, starting with the oldest Teresa on her own and ending with what must be the same year Sonny went missing. The second photo album is more meticulous, more purposeful than random photos slipped into the pages. The lineup of the siblings aren’t to be seen, but there are some group pictures occasionally. Rafael recognizes the forlorn look on everyone’s faces, the same expression he held during his own childhood before it was just him and his mother. The Carisi’s put family at the center of their identity, and not having one of their own with them, not knowing where he was, took a heavy toll on all of them,

“It always felt like we were two families,” Mrs. Carisi, who introduces herself as Christine, says while Sonny pages through the photo albums on the couch next to her. Mr. Carisi, Dom Sr., passes out beverages before taking a seat on the sofa adjacent to them, looking at the scene in the den as if he didn’t believe any of it. “The one with you, and the one without you.”

“I was so small,” Sonny whispers. He runs a finger along the page. “And happy.” He points at a picture. “When was this taken?”

“A few weeks before you left,” Gina states flatly. Teresa and Bella glower at her; Gina just shrugs. “What, I’m not gonna lie!”

“He was six!” Bella fires back. “We were kids! We didn’t know what we were saying.”

“What happened?” Sonny asks. The sisters keep their gazes away from their brother. “I don’t remember.”

Teresa speaks first, gentle and cautious. “We were fighting in Nonno’s bakery. He told us if we helped him clean up, he’d let us pick out some candy. But we couldn’t decide who did what, because we wanted the one who did the most to get more candy. You were smaller than us, so you didn’t get to do as much, and we were rubbing it in your face, so you…” She lets out a heavy sigh before continuing. “You said you didn’t care about candy anyway and ran out of the store. We thought you were just going to stay on the bench until we were finished, but you just ran. And we never saw you again.”

“We looked around the neighborhood for a long time,” Bella continues. Gina faces away, scowling but wavering under the topic of conversation. “Both here and by the store. No one had seen you. It’s like you vanished into thin air.”

Sonny swallows roughly. He shuts the book and runs a hand through his hair, his elf cap clenched between his fingers. “I think I did. All I can remember is running through these streets covered in snow. Just robbing different stores or asking people for a bite to eat.” The breath he takes ripples through his shoulders and down his spine. “I can’t believe I did something so stupid.”

“It’s years’ past now,” Christine says. The sisters say as much, Teresa and Bella moving closer to him and Gina turning to face him. Dom Sr. moves so that he’s sitting on Sonny’s other side and wraps him in a hug. Sonny grabs his arms like a lifeline. “There’s no benefit to blaming one another.”

Olivia and Rafael let the family have their moment, remaining in the space between the dining and living rooms. They’re invited to dinner, which Sonny is more than eager to stay for and share more with them. As far as Rafael knew, he didn’t mention anything about being an elf from the North Pole. He didn’t go into details, but he made it clear that he was housed and well-fed and taken care of, even if the only thing he could remember about himself was his name, Sonny. Which wasn’t his full name, interestingly enough, but it was easier for a six-year-old to remember—Dominick Carisi, Jr. was a bit more difficult.

“Are we done here?” Rafael asks Olivia, making sure his voice is low enough so that only she can hear. The sisters are showing pictures of their own families—Teresa and Bella have children and Bella was recently married—and accomplishments that Sonny missed. The comradery between the four is the type of sibling relationship Rafael used to dream about as an only child.

“We have to see what Sonny wants,” she states. Her tone indicates there’s nothing else for them to discuss, and Olivia seals it with an offer to help set the table. Rafael lingers between following her and watching the siblings until his mind is made up for him and he’s taken aside by Dom Sr., stepping into the entryway between the two conversations taking place.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Dom says, his voice softer than the rest of the family but containing a wise lilt to it that indicates years of reliability, “when Bella told us you would be bringing Sonny over, she mentioned two others coming with her. You were the prosecutor who helped Tommy last year, yes?”

Rafael nods. “I was. He and Bella were wonderful if a bit…loud.”

Dom smiles. “Not the first time we’ve heard that. But they’re happy and lucky to have one another.” His eyes wander to the living room. “To think Sonny was brought back to us thanks to you…” When he looks back at Rafael, there’s a thin line of tears caught in his eyes. “We owe so much to you, sir. Thank you.”

Rafael swallows and just manages a nod. There is a lot of love in this family. Sonny—Dominick—the lost elf was fortunate to come from such a kind home that was eager to have him back without question, without faltering, without remorse.

* * *

Rafael and Olivia left Staten Island without Sonny—who still insisted on going by that name, which came as no surprise to the rest of his family. Rafael was against it in case any issues came up, and he hoped Olivia would protest, but seeing Sonny happy cemented her decision.

“He’s happy here. He’s safe. He wants this,” she added. They had just crossed the Verrazzano Bridge and had been talking about Sonny the entire ride back to Manhattan.

“He didn’t know his full name before we came here,” Rafael counters. “Why are you putting so much trust in him?”

Olivia glares at him. “Because he’s not the person I thought he was. I thought the person he’s been living with for the past few days would understand that.”

“That’s not the issue I have. He’s not equipped for this. You didn’t want to tell him anything.”

Olivia doesn’t say anything at first, keeping her eyes on the road and waiting at a traffic light. “He decided for himself with the knowledge he had. If he didn’t feel good about staying there, he would have said something.”

There’s no use in arguing any more about it, although Rafael wants to push harder. He feels a sort of concern that can only come from housing the elf—well, technically not an elf, as they’ve come to find out. But the point remains: Sonny was sheltered from a life in New York City. He only knows so much about the world and how to respond to it. There’s a real possibility he could be rejected by his family for being too different.

Rafael manages to stop himself from thinking too much about Sonny throughout the rest of his workweek. Like every year, he keeps working until December 23rd. Carmen had tried to convince him to do otherwise, and the squad had threatened to tear him out of his office if he even reached out to them, but it wasn’t going to stop him. Only one thing really could, and he doesn’t realize it until it happens.

He’s sorting through the different collection of papers on his desk—he never was very neat when he was blazing through casework—when he hears the soft jingling of bells. For a moment, he thinks someone is coming up to his office, but they never arrive. It’s only when he glances up and sees something move outside of his window that he realizes what’s happening.

Rafael rushes to the window and opens it to find a giant red sleigh held aloft in the air, floating with the help of eight reindeer in front of it. Sitting in the sleigh is Sonny, dressed rather nicely but somehow looking out of place in the sleigh. He offers a smile and waves at him. “Hi. I went by your house, but you weren’t home, so I hitched a ride here.”

“You’re flying,” Rafael gapes lamely.

Sonny looks down at the sleigh. “Yeah, I called in a favor.” His accent is considerably thicker than it had been when he had arrived a week and a half ago. “It’s a little early to be seeing his sleigh, but the cloaking mechanism should keep us covered up.”

Rafael eyes the reindeer, their legs moving as if they were swimming. There should be a shadow beneath them, stretched across the pavement, but there is no evidence that anything is flying in front of him. He must look insane, leaning out his window and talking to nothing. “I’ll take your word for it. Probably doesn’t look good for me to be talking to you though.”

“Right, right. I was gonna ask if you wanted to join me for a ride. Not for long,” he adds, his cheeks dusty either from embarrassment or the cold, “and if you want to. If you aren’t afraid of heights.”

Rafael chuckles at that and leans in to grab his coat, quickly shrugging into it and pulling it close to him. He can come back later for his suit jacket. “I don’t mind at all.”

Sonny smiles and helps him climb out of the window and onto the sleigh. Strangely enough, stepping onto the sleigh envelops him in a cozy sort of warmth. It almost feels like they aren’t in the middle of a December sky. Before Rafael can ask him about it, however, Sonny is sitting beside him and tugging on the reins. The reindeer take off and fly higher, above the buildings and soaring around the landscapes. New York City always looked amazing, but to see Manhattan from the sky, during a flurry of snowflakes, is a different sight altogether.

Rafael watches the bustle of traffic below as they turn and head for New York Harbor. Even the wind seems to have passed over them thanks to the cloak, though the whistle can still be heard. Sonny lets the reindeer slow until they come to a standstill, keeping the sleigh aloft with small kicks like before but more relaxed. The sleigh bobs gently with the motion; Rafael grabs the bench beneath them to keep steady.

Sonny turns to him, opening his mouth a few times before he manages to speak. “I wanna thank you for helping me when I got here,” he says. “I didn’t realize how much I needed that until I met my family.”

“I didn’t volunteer, but I’m glad I didn’t,” Rafael offers a small smile. “Someone else may have gotten the chance to teach you how to use a blender.”

Sonny laughs—the sound is still as light and joyous as the first time Rafael had heard it. When he had been walking up to his apartment, they had run into a neighbor who was walking her dog. Sonny had dropped down almost instantly to greet the pup and laughed when his face and hands were licked in greeting. Rafael’s stomach flipped when he heard it then, and it does it again now. Luckily, he can still hide his blush by sharing the laugh, albeit much more subtle and quieter than Sonny’s. “I might have gotten their kitchens dirty, but I mean it.” His gaze is so tender, so soft and admirable. “Thank you, Rafael.”

Rafael just nods and shifts on the bench. He wishes the cold could be felt at least a little so he could play his shiver off as a reaction to a breeze. “Of course.”

Sonny looks out at the river below them, at the Statue of Liberty standing just to the left of the sleigh. “I left the North Pole because I couldn’t compete with the elves. I found out it’s because I’m human, so I ventured off to find out where I came from. I was given the option of returning when I did, maybe help with reindeer care or something, or staying here. But I already knew what I was doing.” He looks back at Rafael when he says, “My heart belongs in the city.”

“Does it.” It’s not a question, but his voice cracks at the end. There’s so much that can happen over the next few minutes, and Rafael doesn’t know any of it. No guess could prepare him for the unease creeping up his throat.

“You can probably hear it in my voice, but I adapted pretty quickly.” Sonny chuckles and leans against the backboard, gazing up at the sky. The view of the stars below them is much better than it would be from the ground level, even with the consequences of air pollution. “I always asked if I was really from the North Pole because it didn’t feel right. I could remember a time where I wasn’t surrounded by snow and elves. And seeing my parents and sisters, and their families, it makes sense. I should be with them. But…”

Against his better judgment, to stop himself from getting any more involved in Sonny’s life than he is, Rafael finishes for him. “Something still feels off.”

Sonny smiles grimly. “Off. Incomplete. Out of place. And it’s unrelated to what I’ve already found out.”

An easy silence falls between them. Rafael watches some snow fall past them, outside of the cloak hiding them from the rest of the world. They should just let it snow on them. It might add something to the atmosphere. Rafael holds a hand out, over the edge of the sleigh, and lets some fall into his palm. The second his hand passes the cloak around him, the biting chill of the wind and the dainty flurries fluttering down cut into his hand.

“I read about you.”

Rafael can’t help but react, snorting at the comment out of context. “All flattering, I assume,” he jokes.

Sonny stays just as serious as his tone was. “You’ve done amazing things. You’re so determined to help others in court, you got choked by your own belt. You had to watch your childhood friend get torn down. You helped Tommy, my sister’s husband. And you’re known for being this chilling presence in court, willing to put everything on the line for justice. And yet,” Sonny stares at him, eyes shining and crystal blue, “for as icy as you were, you still helped me. You want people to believe you’re cold and cut off from them like you don’t care, but you do. It’s just shown differently.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Rafael says, mostly to cut Sonny off from calling him out again. He’s already gotten so close—what has Sonny been doing for the past week?

“Maybe that’s why I can say it. You don’t really know how other people see you or how you come off to others.” His eyes flicker up at the snow. “You probably thought I was crazy.”

Rafael sighs at that; some of the snow starts to fall onto them, perhaps released at Sonny’s request. “Until a few minutes ago, when you appeared outside my window on a flying sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, I definitely thought you were crazy. But now…” He shrugs and tries to ignore how close they are when he leans back. “If being sane means I don’t get to be here with you, I don’t mind losing my mind.”

The smile is clearly heard in Sonny’s voice. “Didn’t expect that last part.” They fall silent again; then, Sonny straightens up, inadvertently brushing their shoulders together, and claps his hands. “Alright. Well. Not much else to add, and I can’t use this for long.”

Rafael watches him grab the reins again and tug on them to get the reindeer moving again. He doesn’t speak until they’re off, flying through the air and whizzing past skyscrapers. If it also helps that, if he’s lucky, Sonny won’t pick up on any hints of emotions in his voice, that’s simply a welcomed addition. “So you’re staying in New York.”

Sonny nods. “I have papers that’ll help me get on my feet after the holidays. I’m hoping I can find some university classes to take so I can get started on something.”

“Already? You just learned your last name.”

“It’s not like I’m gonna be enrolled right away, but it’s still good to be looking. It’ll take a while before I can go to law school anyway.”

Rafael’s heart nearly stops at that. He notices Sonny’s hands are much tighter on the reins. “Law school.”

“I was inspired,” Sonny shrugs, his neck turning red to match the rest of his face. “This guy I met did a lot to help others. I haven’t gotten to see it, but I hope I can now.”

Rafael swallows roughly. “I can be doing much more. The justice system doesn’t always prevail for the right person.”

“I’m talking about his character.” Sonny pulls the reins to pull them back to a stop, a block or so away from Hogan Place and right outside of the courthouse. “Like I said, he fights for people who were wronged. He speaks for them when they don’t have a voice. And sometimes, he acted like there were a thousand other things he could have been doing, but he introduced me to a world I didn’t know I had lost.”

“Be careful,” Rafael breathes out. “You keep this up, I’m going to do something that’ll put me on the naughty list.”

Sonny smirks. “You’re already there.” And then he kisses him. Rafael sinks into the sensation—Sonny stumbles a bit but he manages to pull Rafael close to his chest and hold him tight. His lips were already so pink, and they feel as soft as they look. Rafael could lose himself to endless kisses from this man, and he wouldn’t even try to recover. It’s a shame Sonny breaks the kiss so he can press their foreheads together. Rafael just keeps his eyes shut and listens to the soft whisper of his voice. “I felt like he cared for me, even though he said otherwise. And I know it’s real because so many other people have experienced the same thing. But I don’t think any of them focused on how hot he was.”

“Shut up,” Rafael huffs as he tugs Sonny down by the back of his hair to kiss him again. He licks the inside of his mouth and bites his bottom lip for a tease. “We both know you’re talking about me.”

Sonny takes his breath away in one fell swoop of his lips, with one grasp around his waist, and with every promise to come back for one more kiss. The snow falls around them but they can admire it later. There’s a better sight to admire right in front of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes Rafael was singing "Let it Snow", yes I referenced it in the last section of the fic, yes I thought of using "Sleigh Ride" but it's not really a song that you would expect a canon-inspired version of Rafael from singing


End file.
